Star Wars went dormant in the late 80s through the mid-late 90s where there was no merch or toys in stores, no cartoons or shows on tv, and no comic books. Cable and home video wasn’t yet ubiquitous, for a cohort of kids born in the 80s and early 90s it’s quite possible to have missed out on it until you were older.

I was 7 or 8 in the early 90s in Texas before I heard about Star Wars. I was playing play sword fighting with my dad, when he mentioned my broom handle looked like a lightsaber, I was like “what’s that?” My dad then proceeded to delight me with the story. It would be about 6 months later when an aunt lent us a VHS player that I would get to see it.

I grew up in China, where the first Star Wars movie wasn't released in theaters until 1999. It had probably been shown on TV in some cities before then, but Star Wars definitely wasn't a well-known pop culture phenomenon there.

If your parents thought cable TV was too expensive, even a North American kid could have no idea what Star Wars was until they became a teenager , had access to a BBS and saw jpegs of princess Lea.

> in the 80s the Star Wars were already a cult thing

I grew up in the 90s, and when the special editions came out in '97, it was the kind of thing that only those of us with nostalgic dads actually went to see.

I only saw Empire at the time, don't think I saw the rest of the trilogy until shortly before the prequels came out.